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Title: Message
9/11 Hearings Set
for June
Congressional Inquiry 'Well Underway,' Co-Chairman Says
By Juliet Eilperin and Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff
Writers
Saturday, May 25, 2002; Page A07
Responding to calls for an
aggressive congressional inquiry into the
government's actions before and
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,
the probe's two leaders announced
yesterday that they will begin
hearings early next month.
The move came
as several other lawmakers continued to advocate an
independent commission,
despite opposition from the Bush administration
and most Republican
legislators.
Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), co-chairman of the special
House-Senate panel
established to conduct the probe, said hearings will
begin June 4 in
private. They will become public at the month's end, he
said, with the
directors of the CIA and the FBI as the first
witnesses.
"We have an aggressive schedule of fact-finding hearings
starting . . .
the day after Congress returns from this Memorial Day
recess," said
Graham, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee. "Our
hearings will
continue through June and July and into the fall."
His
news conference was designed to respond to public and private
complaints
that the unusual, bipartisan joint panel was off to a slow
start. Its
initial staff director, L. Britt Snider, resigned earlier
this month over a
personnel problem, and Graham himself complained of
problems getting
documents from the FBI and the CIA.
Graham said the joint panel's 23 staff
members -- from the military,
government and private sector -- have worked
for more than eight weeks,
conducting 175 interviews and collecting more
than 30,000 documents.
"We are not in any way being deflected from our main
mission," said
House intelligence committee Chairman Porter J. Goss
(R-Fla.), who
chairs the probe with Graham. "Our joint, bicameral,
bipartisan inquiry
is well underway and doing fine."
Nonetheless, Senate
Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said
yesterday he will take up
legislation shortly after Congress returns
June 3 to establish an
independent inquiry. Recent disclosures of
pre-Sept. 11 terror warnings
stirred renewed interest in the idea of an
independent investigation,
especially in the Democratic-controlled
Senate. But it was not clear
yesterday whether Daschle's proposal could
pass in either chamber.
The
Senate bill, sponsored by Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and
John
McCain (R-Ariz.), would create a 14-member commission of
prominent
Americans outside of government to make a "full and complete
accounting
of the circumstances surrounding the attacks." The president
would
appoint four members, and congressional leaders would appoint 10.
They
would report preliminary findings in six months and issue a final
report
a year after that.
Rep. Timothy J. Roemer (D-Ind.) has a similar
proposal in the House. It
would create a 10-member independent panel to
conduct an 18-month probe.
Daschle said he believes there is a "growing
realization" among senators
that there is a need for an independent
commission. But he also
acknowledged his effort would need at least some
Republican support. GOP
leaders have been cool to the idea, and the bill to
establish an
independent commission has only two GOP sponsors so far:
McCain and Sen.
Charles E. Grassley (Iowa).
Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.),
who favors leaving the probe in the hands
of the intelligence committees,
said he believes Senate Democrats are
split on the issue, although most
favor an independent probe. "If fairly
structured, it could pass," he said.
Many senators have yet to focus on
the question, he said.
Graham and
Goss circulated a "Dear Colleague" letter Thursday to assure
members of
Congress that the joint panel was making progress. Rep. C.
Saxby Chambliss
(R-Ga.), a panel member, said the group had already
identified problems in
the government's security network.
"The thing we do know is there is a
systemic problem at the FBI when it
comes to sharing information,"
Chambliss said. "We continue to follow up
on these revelations that are
being made."
Goss said he did not sense wide support in the House for an
independent
commission. "Not a lot of people are coming up to me and saying
we've
got to do this," he said. No House Republican has called for
an
independent inquiry.
But Roemer said "a dozen or so" Republicans have
told him privately they
might support an independent inquiry. "They just
don't want to be
visibly taking on the White House at this point," he
said.
Staff writer Walter Pincus contributed to this report.
© 2002
The Washington Post Company
"Our lives begin to end the day we become
silent about things that
matter." - Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr.
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